Audit & Accounting

Two years after the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley, corporate reforms are still impacting corporate directors, according to a study by Corporate Board Member magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Despite Internal Revenue Service assertions that it had halted the decline in the government's efforts to police corporate tax non-compliance, the pace of corporate audits is running well below record-low levels registered in 2003, according to an analysis of IRS data.

There's good news for accounting and finance professionals -- starting salaries are expected to increase an average of 2.4 percent next year. But the news is far better for internal auditors and professionals focused on Sarbanes-Oxley and other corporate governance-related initiatives -- they're poised to see huge boosts in base compensation, according to staffing giant Robert Half International Inc.

Following its earlier decision to delay the implementation of a proposed standard to mandate stock option expensing, members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board decided that the standard will apply to private companies and small business issuers for fiscal years beginning after Dec. 15, 2005, as originally planned.

Grant Thornton LLP and its international parent firm are striking back against a $10 billion lawsuit filed against them by bankrupt dairy giant Parmalat.

The most significant challenge facing small firms in the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's inspection process is the difference between the board's approach versus that taken during the peer reviews of the past, the deputy director of inspections in the board's New York office told a group of CPAs gathered here.

Grant Thornton LLP and its international parent firm are striking back against a $10 billion lawsuit filed against them by bankrupt dairy giant Parmalat.

The European Commission has proposed changes to European Union accounting rules that it says will help shore up confidence in financial reporting.

Members of the Professional Ethics Executive Committee of the American Institute of CPAs acknowledged a series of practitioner's concerns with regard to PEEC's revised interpretation of rules governing members who offer non-attest services to attest clients.

Thomas C. Newkirk, associate director in the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, will depart the commission in November after 19 years of service to become a partner in the Washington office of the law firm of Jenner & Block LLP.